geopolitics

• Death of Stalin


  1953
• Joseph Stalin


  Ruthless leader known for his purges, which led to the death and imprisonment of millions of people
• Sovietization


  The adoption of the policies and practices of the Soviet Union, as set out by Stalin
• After the death of Stalin, it would become more easily for the Soviet Union to open up to non-communist and non-allied countries, like India for example
• Nikita Khrushchev


  Successor of Stalin, started a process of destalinization, trying to reverse some of the excesses that had occurred under Stalin's rule
• Khrushchev had taken part in the purges of the 1930s, and had killed over 55,000 civil servants in those purges
• 20th Party Congress, Khrushchev discusses destalinization and the excesses under Stalin in the secret speech


  1956
• The content of this speech will eventually spread throughout the communist world and put pressure on the Soviets, as some will take this as a signal to demand more freedom from the Soviets
• Uprisings in Poznan, Poland


  June 1956
• Poznan protests


  Workers fight a real battle with the Polish military and state security troops, demands include the rehabilitation of Władysław Gomułka and the removal of the most-discredited Stalinist officials
• Gomulka is returned to power in Poland, accepted by Khrushchev and the Soviet leadership after intense negotiations


  October 1956
• The revolts of October 1956 were the product of the de-stalinization process directed from Moscow and they can be regarded as predominantly political actions
• Gomułka provided a Polish communism that was less strict and that put Polish interests first
• Peaceful protests in Hungary transform into an armed anti-Soviet battle

  23 October 1956
• In a few days, the revolution spread across the country, a general strike took place, and all over Hungary workers' councils and revolutionary committees snatched power from local authorities
• Hungary announced its withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact and the neutrality of Hungary


  1 November 1956
• The Soviet Red Army enters Hungary and massively cracks down on the protesters


  4 November 1956
• The Hungarian revolution was correctly seen as the transformation of the regime into a western-type democracy that needed to be crushed
• The noninterference of the West in November 1956 reassured Kremlin officials that, should any future conflict occur within the boundaries of their empire, they would have a free hand
• Dwight Eisenhower becomes President of the United States


  1953
• After a full twenty years of democratic leadership, the republicans are able to reconquer the White House
• Decolonization led to the collapse of European empires and the rapid independence of dozens of countries, sometimes peacefully but often violently
• Countries that were colonized

  • The Americas
  • Africa
  • Asia
• By 1914, Europeans had gained control of around 84% of the globe
• Mercantilism


  The colony was seen as a means to strengthen the economy of the mother country by providing exclusive goods that could then be sold
• Divide and rule


  The colonizers appoint a minority in the colony to rule over the rest of the population
• The Second World War spread the idea that the war was fought to liberate populations in Europe and elsewhere from the axis powers, which could be applied to populations under colonial rule
• The European defeats at the hands of the Japanese also destroyed the myth of white supremacy that the Caucasian Europeans were superior to other populations, this myth which had always underpinned colonial rule
• Decolonization led to a power vacuum that would need to be filled, with groups turning against each other using violence
• Many local populations had been excluded from power positions in the administration or had been excluded from access to higher education, leading to a lack of qualified and skilled people to run the administrations once the colonizers leave
• The inclusive nature of the Indian National Congress Party would not survive the Second World War and the religious divisions which were to scar India in the late 1940s were already significant in the 1930s
• After 1935, political power in the provinces was up for grabs and this, alongside the attempts to secure representation for both Hindus and Muslims, provided the reason for greater competition and conflict between the two communities
• British Prime Minister Attlee was in favor of Indian independence
• The British have to assume some responsibility for the increasing conflict and bitterness which began to affect Hindu and Muslim communities that had happily coexisted for hundreds of years
• It eventually encouraged the Congress Party to become a Hindu Party, as the various Muslim political groupings came to be effectively dominated by Mohammed Ali Jinnah's Muslim League
• With Jinnah determined on a separate Muslim state it was difficult to see a way forward to a united India
• Despite opposition from the military who wanted to keep their military bases in India, he pointed to the lack of any viable plans to remain in India and appointed Mountbatten as the viceroy charged with securing Indian independence
• Mountbatten ignored the desirability both of defense agreements before independence and of a united India, and brought the date for the transfer of power forward to August 1947
• The independence of India was created in an unseemly rush and managed by a British plenipotentiary rather than ministers or officials in London
• It brought the British little credit because population transfers between India and Pakistan were accompanied by large-scale bloodshed